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5 Major Problems With Backyard Eggs

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In an attempt to combat the cruelty involved with factory farmed eggs, many well meaning consumers have become backyard hen owners. While well intentioned, the issues surrounding backyard hens are much more complex than people realize. There’s no getting away from the fact that these hens are still the product of a cruel and inhumane system, even if they are treated in a kind and loving way by their owners. It’s the demand for these egg laying hens which drives the industry, making it impossible to separate backyard hen keeping from the industry itself.

No matter how well these intelligent and caring creatures are cared for in individual homes, they are part of a wider network of cruelty which cannot be escaped from despite the best efforts of the agricultural industry marketing machine. Here are five major problems with backyard hens which highlight why the demand for eggs must stop if we want to see an end to animal cruelty:

2. Male Chicks are Killed at Birth

There is no use for a male chick in the industry so they are killed before they reach one day old, with more than 250 million being killed every year in the U.S. alone. The hatcheries sort males from females, and then the males are thrown onto a conveyor belt and crushed in a large grinder. Some are misidentified and end up being sent out with the females, where they are often killed at just a few weeks old once they are discovered as farms and shops have no use for the males.

3. Genetic Manipulation Causes Health Problems

In nature chickens lay around 10 – 20 eggs per year, which is enough to ensure the continuation of the species in keeping with the natural balance of their environment. Over time, domesticated hens have been selectively bred and genetically manipulated to produce between 260 – 300 eggs per year. This causes an unnatural burden on their bodies, causing a host of health problems from a young age, including many fatal disorders of the reproductive tract.

4. What Happens When Egg Production Slows?

In farm circumstances once egg production slows hens are killed, and when the same thing happens in a backyard situation, which it inevitably will. Most owners are at a loss at what to do and end up abandoning animals as a result. Abandonment seems like a better option than slaughter as most people never buy hens with the intention of killing them, but once they become unproductive they aren’t prepared to pay for their upkeep when they not getting anything in return.

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5. Perpetuating the Myth That Animals are Ours to Use as We Please

Some people are under the illusion that keeping backyard hens is ultimately the most ethical thing to do, as they are offering the hen a kinder and more natural way of life than those found in factory farms. The problem is that keeping backyard hens so we can eat their eggs only continues to perpetuate the mentality that animals belong to us and we have ownership of their bodies, when in reality they are individuals with their own purpose and place in the world. Our demand for eggs is responsible for the murder of hundreds of millions of chicks and hens each year, and there is no ethical way to be a part of this.

Comments

This article was sent to me recently by a high-horse vegan who wanted to shame me because I accepted eggs from a friend who has several hens at a horse farm that he and I both board at. This article is incredibly broad stroke and therefore an ineffective way to educate. It does not take into account the people who have back yard hens, who take incredible care of their hens, do not breed their hens, offer them plenty of space to roam around, feed them well, and overall treat them like family. He doesn\’t buy chickens from hatcheries and has had these hens in his life for years. They are also not destined to become dinner at anytime either. If you want to educate people better, maybe the right approach is to create checklists of good questions to ask to ensure that our choices are humane. Please leave the brokestroke accusations and zealot shaming out of the picture. I have walked away with a negative impression of the work that you do and will probably discount everything you write henceforth.

Are people keeping chickens to produce eggs for consumption and ultimately save money or for companions/pets? If the former is the case then the chickens should be butchered at ~2 years because the cost of feeding the chickens usually starts to outweigh the money saved from not having to buy eggs. From a cost/efficiency perspective it does not make sense to buy chickens unless you are going to butcher them. Also money to build the pen and provide proper veterinary care as chickens do tend to get ill. Now any smart farmer will probaly kill the chickens when they get ill rather than pay for expensive vet bills. Chickens may suffer for weeks before dying so are you going to save money and wring their neck yourself or pay a lot of money for the vet to do it via painless euthanasia? Also from a land efficiency perspective it is a better use of space to grow tight packed rows of vegetables rather than using that space to give your chickens an enormous pen so they can have lots of space to run and be happy. If you don\’t keep your chickens in a pen then predators are a concern and you may lose some, also they will destroy your vegetable gardens or you will have to spend more time/money putting fences around the garden. Chickens may eat their own eggs to reabsorb calcium/nutrients so you shouldn\’t take them away if you are truely loving ie. the whole idea of raising chickens for eggs would go out the window… It goes on and on. Good points presented in this article.

My point is that money and morals do not mix well as regards animal husbandry. If you take a purely moral approach to raising chickens then you must be prepared to lose money because you have likely made a negative investment and in the grand scheme of things the money you are saving on eggs for a few years is not worth it. If you are butchering/eating the chickens yourself and keeping egg production high as is done traditionally with most backyard farming around the world then it could be a positive investment though sometimes having animals is an expensive time investment and can limit your freedom to leave the property for extended days/weeks in which case it may not be worth it for you.

If you are just keeping chickens for companions and have rescued them then I would say that is absolutely vegan. I would not buy them for companions because:1. You will be supporting chick hatcheries which kill or supporting small farmers which also kill (if they don\’t want to go out of buisness.)2. Dogs make better companions.

Why is it wrong to take in a battery chick, you will be saving it a brutal death. Yes it is in a way contributing to the system directly, however if more people had backyard chickens and it was promoted, then there would be a decrease in demand for battery eggs. If you are saving a chicken from death or a torturous life what is the difference to the chicken\’s life whether you see it as an individual or a way to get eggs? At least it has the possibility to have a purpose on the earth if it is saved. If it then laid eggs, what is wrong with using them? I personally would prefer a person who wants a chicken for eggs to get one than it to be slaughtered at birth.